1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a water-in-oil emulsion composition for bakery. More particularly, it relates to a water-in-oil emulsion composition for bakery, wherein an extremely high emulsion stability and a high proportion of aqueous phase can be achieved, capable of giving a product having an excellent flavor, a soft texture and a good meltability in mouth when used in, particularly, baked products.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In recent years, it has been required to develop an oil and fat composition for bakery of a high water content from various viewpoints, for example, from the nutritional viewpoint and in order to give baked products having a goods texture.
A known method for producing a table margarine of a high water content comprises using an unsaturated monoglyceride as an emulsifier (refer to Japanese Patent Publication No. 5023/1971). The unsaturated monoglyceride to be used as an emulsifier in this method substantially consists of cis-form unsaturated fatty acids, which will be referred to as the cis-unsaturated monoglyceride hereinafter. This method is based on the fact that the cis-unsaturated monoglyceride can form rigid liquid crystals at the W/O emulsion interface.
On the other hand, an oil and fat composition of a high water content should have a plasticity over a wide temperature range, when the purposes of its use are taken into consideration. Regarding the oil and fat composition, therefore, those having a considerably high solid fat content (SFC) are to be blended, different from the above-mentioned table margarine of a high water content. This is because plasticity is indispensable in order to uniformly incorporate an oil and fat composition of a high water content into, for example, a bread dough, a cookie dough or a cake dough. A stable W/O emulsion, similar to a conventional table margarine of a high water content, can be obtained by producing an oil and fat composition of a high water content by blending a conventional cis-unsaturated monoglyceride with a base comprising a fat composition of a high SFC. In this W/O emulsion, however, high melting point fats in the fat composition are intensely incorporated into liquid crystals in the production process. As a result, no plasticity over a wide temperature range can be achieved and therefore the obtained product shows only a seriously deteriorated suitability for producing baked products.
The deterioration of the plasticity is also observed in a fat emulsion comprising a diglyceride having unsaturated fatty acid residues (refer to Japanese Patent Publication No. 301743/1988), which suggests that it is due to a specific function of cis-unsaturated fatty acids.